Happy New Year!

2012 is upon us! It will probably take me until March to stop writing “2011″ on any paperwork… as usual.

What did we do here at the Frühlingskabine last night? We slept. I won’t sugar coat it or make excuses. No parties for us. We had chores to do early this morning, just like every morning, and we are glad for it. When we awoke, Trevor got up and let the chickens out into their run and fed the rabbits. Then eggs were collected for the perfect breakfast– two fried eggs, two pieces of toast from home baked bread, and iced peach tea. What a great way to live on the first day of the year.

Rabbit rabbit rabbit! (if you just said ‘huh?’ then look it up)

Magical Bread :: Update

If you haven’t seen my post on “magical bread” and the recipe… look here. You’ll want to try it for yourself.

In this house, we eat quite a bit of bread and more so since I started baking fresh bread using this recipe. I don’t think I can emphasize enough how much I hate baking/cooking/building things that are not quick and easy. This bread overall is not quick, but it is easy. The three steps take only a few minutes each over the course of about 10-14 hours. I know that may sound like a long time, but if you simply take two minutes to mix your dough before bed, by the time you wake up… the wait is over!

This by far the best bread recipe I have ever tried and better yet– it only requires flour, yeast, water, and salt! When people eat your home baked bread they will think you are a miracle worker. It’s that good.

Here’s what I’ve discovered:
If it’s super cold at night when your bread should be rising (like it is here), just let it rise in the oven with the oven light on. Alternatively, you could put it near the fire to keep warm.

If it’s cold and isn’t rising well the second time, increase the yeast to 1 teaspoon per loaf. You probably won’t have any rising problems when spring comes.

It is easier to bake a double batch (two loaves) every 2-3 days than just one loaf every day. They keep fresh just fine in a large ziplock bag and I’ve needed that extra loaf to take to dinner parties for the host. It makes the perfect dinner gift. You will hear no complaints about this bread at the table!

One 5-pound bag of flour easily makes four to five loaves of bread. I always buy two 5-pound bags at a time so that I get an even ten loaves. It just seems to work that way for me.

Lastly, the more you fold your dough before the second rising, the more air pockets you will have. If you don’t fold it you will end up with a denser bread much like potato bread.

Eggnog Fail

I love eggnog. Plain and simple. Unfortunately, eggnog is in short supply to begin with and guaranteed to be non-existent the day after Christmas. So what did I do? I made my own.

I’m not sure what I did wrong, but my nog was far from delicious. Since we have two laying hens now I used fresh Frühlingskabine eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and spices. Not only did it come out chunky… it was flavorless. We drank as much as we could and threw out the rest. Good thing I only made half of a batch! I guess I’ll have to wait for next Christmas to get my fix.

Homemade eggnog? Fail.